More Roadblocks to Trade Deal with EU!

by Louise Mclean

At the conclusion of this last week of talks, David Frost issued a statement yesterday which reveals that the EU is still very much at odds with the UK's stance on a trade deal.

The UK has threatened to make public all the threats of the EU during the ongoing negotiations.

After the third negotiating round this year, both sides were downbeat about any progress being achieved and David Frost says that Britain will be publishing all its draft legal texts, so that EU member states and others can read them.

David Frost says the major obstacle is the EU's ideological insistence on creating 'novel and unbalanced proposals' for standards to comply with the EU's 'level playing field'.  David Frost said:  "The major obstacle is the EU's insistence on including a set of novel and unbalanced proposals on the so-called 'level playing field', which would bind this country to EU law or standards, or determine our domestic legal regimes, in a way that is unprecedented in Free Trade Agreements and not envisaged in the Political Declaration". 

The Bloc has demanded that Britain is tied to EU regulation on trade, fisheries, aviation, energy and that the European Court of Justice should oversee legal standards.  This includes products, e.g. pharmaceutical, entering the EU market from Britain.  It also includes tying Britain to EU state aid rules.

In addition, Mr. Frost said that the EU continues to insist on fisheries arrangements and access to UK fishing waters that is incompatible with our future status as an independent coastal state and which would be against the interests of the UK fishing industry. 

Michel Barnier still demands that the UK cannot have the 'best of both worlds', but all Britain wants is a similar Comprehensive Free Trade Deal to the ones the EU completed with Canada and Japan, which never included regulatory alignment!

Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen has threatened that the EU will sue Britain for not complying with EU freedom of movement rules.  A statement by the European Commission reads: 'UK national legislation limits the scope of beneficiaries of EU free movement law in the UK, as well as the possibilities for EU citizens and their family members to appeal administrative decisions restricting free movement rights'.

On our side, Michael Gove has been extremely concerned about the rights of Brits living in the EU.  He says that legislation protects European citizens in the UK but no such legislation appears to protect our UK citizens.

Gove says there is widespread disregard for the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement which says people should be allowed to remain in either the UK or EU after the transition but Britons applying for settled status to stay in Spain, France, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus, Austria and the Czech Republic have had problems.

UK citizens have sent alarming claims to the Government about their concerns regarding the application process,  In a letter to EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, Mr. Gove sets out a four point complaint, saying 'we take our Withdrawal Agreement obligations on citizens' rights very seriously'.

The UK has made available grants of £9 million to 57 community organisation to support vulnerable EU citizens but in contrast member states have not yet shared similar information and in some cases there seems to be none.

The next round of talks is due to begin on 1st June, whereupon a decision must be made by 30th June as to whether the transition period should be extended for a further two years past the end of December this year.  Boris Johnson has so far totally ruled out any extension.

As far as the Writer is concerned, it looks like the EU are trying to come up with every possible roadblock to prevent Britain untying itself from its shackles by 31st December 2020 and we should just leave on WTO terms as soon as possible.  I predict that the EU will make a trade deal impossible with its demands.

Whatever Happened to Brexit?

by Louise Mclean 

Since the Corona virus hit the world, Brexit appears to be almost shelved for now.  Head EU negotiator, Michel Barnier is in quarantine, having tested positive for the virus and now Boris Johnson likewise, along with David Frost the UK's chief negotiator, who has shown mild symptoms.

During the week of 18^th to 20^th March, trade talks were supposed to resume but because of the virus, they were to take place via video links.  However the EU said this would not be acceptable and they were cancelled.

A working party of Brexit officials held a 'virtual' meeting on 26th March but the European Commission told them that trade negotiations were frozen and video meetings were not suitable for further talks.  There was also a meeting scheduled for 6th April which has been cancelled too.

As we know, the trade deal must be finalised by the end of December, unless the UK asks for an extension, which has so far been dismissed by Boris Johnson.

Both the EU and UK have already submitted their respective versions of a draft free trade agreement, with big divisions on both sides on issues such as fisheries and the 'level playing field' (i.e. harmonisation of EU rules in the UK).

Apparently there has not yet been any formal UK request for an extension but this must be decided by 1st July and the EU still believes that the end of December will not be long enough to finalise the trade deal.

So for now at least, we must continue to pay the EU membership bill and hopefully it will not be more than the current net payment of £9 billion per year.

The next EU/UK meeting will now be held in June and it is currently thought that an extension will be requested.  One EU diplomat has suggested that an ideal opportunity to bring this up will be on a phone call on 30th March, when Michael Gove speaks to Maros Sefcovic, a senior EU Commissioner, to discuss the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Of course many people think we left the EU on 31st January and technically we have left but that date was the expiration of Article 50. However we only fully leave on 31st December and until then must abide by all EU laws and regulations until the trade deal is completed, or if not, leave fully on 31st December under WTO rules.

Incredible to think that this time last year we were expecting to leave on 29th March and ended up having three more extensions - 12th April, 31st October and finally 31st January for the Article 50 period to end.

We sincerely hope that an extension to the transition period after 31st December will not happen but privately many senior figures believe that with governments tied up in dealing with the Corona virus outbreak, unfortunately this could happen. However today's edition of the Daily Express maintains Boris Johnson is still refusing to have any extension, (although erroneously they put 31st January 2021, instead of 31st December 2020). 

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